Socialization begins at a very young age; socialization is defined as “the social processes through which we develop an awareness of social norms and values and achieve a distinct sense of self (Giddens).” The media plays a huge role in shaping a child identity on how he or she should behave in the society (Giddens 72). Children are the most to be effected by the content they view on the mass media such as television shows, advertisements, movies, music and everything else shown on the media. Disney movies are seen to be safe for children because it teaches, morals, values of sharing, believing in yourself and the importance of hard work and success. But many fail to see the ways Disney movies reinforces wrong messages to children. Many popular Disney movies show stereotypical gender roles, the false representation of other groups and cultures, which may affect children negatively in the feature.
Socialization helps us develop ways in which people develop perceptions, feelings, and beliefs. Socialization makes us who we are. The mass media is one agent of socialization in which significant developments of socialization occurs (Giddens 72).” Around age one or two children, “gradually come to understand that others have distinct identities, consciousness, and needs separate from their own (Giddens 70).” It is important to understand the messages given to young kids by the media because throughout their whole life they will keep and carry the information they learned about themselves and apply it to the world around them.
The most common stereotypical gender roles shown in Disney movies are women as weak and helpless, more often than not waiting for her prince to come save her such as snow white and sleeping beauty. In these mo...
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...has messages that are reliable and a good influence to children. But understanding the messages from the media is important. This knowledge is needed to be spread to others, people need to be aware of this problem. Everyone can do something, people can teach their children and the future generations about the problems involved with mass media. The media may shape societies norms but if people come together we can also shape the media.
Work Cite
Bonds-Raacke, Jennifer M. "Cinderella And Sleeping Beauty: Developing A Course On Disney And Fairytale Movies." Journal Of Instructional Psychology 35.3 (2008): 232-234. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
Giddens, Anthony. Essentials of sociology. 3nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008. Print.
McQuail, Denis. "The influence and effects of mass media." Mass communication and society (1977): 70-94.
Most women in their childhood had probably dreamt of being a princess and meeting their charming prince. As Walt Disney’s figures have been influential in this sense, the ideal portrayal of princesses still attracts young girls who imitate them, their lifestyle and their physical appearance. In Sleeping Beauty (1959) and in The Little Mermaid (1989) the narration is focused on the search for true love, personified by a prince, for self-accomplishment. It is crucial to differentiate the representation of femininity of the two protagonists in the two movies to better understand if the role of Princesses has changed over those last thirty years. The main figures in both movies
Cinderella is arguably the most popular fairy tale of all time. While there are many variants, the Disney variant of Cinderella focuses on a girl being rescued from her circumstances by a prince who fell in love with her based on her appearance and because her tiny feet were the “perfect” fit to a lost slipper. Modern feminists are concerned with the subliminal messages Cinderella has in portraying the role of women. Some critique that Cinderella conveys women to have a defined gender stereotype and believe that it has a negative effect on children’s minds. Two critics that have dealt extensively with Cinderella and princess culture are James Poniewozak and Peggy Orenstein. James Poniewozak is a media and television critic for Time magazine and Peggy Orenstein is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. In two similar but unique articles, they discuss Disney’s princess culture and explore its psychological effects. While both Poniewozak and Orenstein are concerned with how princess culture shapes children’s understanding of femininity; Poniewozak explores how feminist themes in movies have evolved over time
There is a lot of debate around Disney films concerning the representation of women and its relation to identity formation. Many sociologist and feminists argue that the ways in which Disney princesses are depicted in films are problematic due to the domesticated and inferior positioning of them. It is believed that these characters and their imagined roles to be positively correlated to the historical and social context unfolding at the time. Here, I will discuss the significance of two Disney princesses, Snow White and Cinderella, and compare and contrast their treatment in a sociological and feminist framework.
Media is a powerful agent in entertaining children. It also influences and teaches the youth of society the suitable and appropriate gender roles that they inevitably try to make sense of. The power of media is very influential especially in the minds of the youth. Disney movies target the youth and plant certain ideas and concepts about social culture into the vulnerable minds of children. Media uses gender to its advantage, just like Disney productions. Humorous caricatures reveal some harsh realities about the portrayal of Disney Princesses in many movies made by the Walt Disney Company. Disney mixes innocence with the ultimate form of fantasy to capture an audience. Predominantly, Disney helps highlight the gender roles by showing the audience simply what they want to see. In the attempt to stick to the norm and portray stereotypical female characters, Disney created Princesses. Presented as damsels in distress and inferior beings to men, Disney Princesses give children an inaccurate portrayal of gender roles at a young age. Through Disney’s social success and intriguing films, such as The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast, Disney Princess movies portray stereotypical representation of gender roles through the denigration of the female image, targeting and ruining the perception of youth today.
When considering the history of Disney’s animation, it plays an important role in socialization process for constructing and shaping gender stereotype in society through different themes, storyline, and characters like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, who always waiting for the prince to save her. Likewise Jeanne & Debra (1996) argued that “in most of the animated films, the male characters are usually projected as aggressive, full of action and violent whilst female characters are proved to be passive and useless as well as sub-ordinate to man” . In Frozen, on the contrary, the male characters Kristoff and Prince Hans are only supporting characters for the plot development. Elsa and Anna positioned as empowered against the traditional Disney setting of masculine heroes. They pursue their goals, they are leaders and exercise power, and they save each other and everyone else in their country. It can be seems that societal expectations of feminism and gender roles is becoming a significant issue and are continually improving for the
Sam Higgs, a media teacher and screen education author, describes Disney princesses as “allegories of the dominant representations of women at the time of each film’s production.” To illustrate this, the three classic Disney princesses, Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora, the princess from Sleeping Beauty, display qualities such as hospitality, kindness while being mistreated, and dependence on a man. Each of these princesses perform roles of a housewife, including cooking and cleaning. During the time these movies were made, which was from 1937 to 1959, these characteristics were what was expected of women. The next wave of princesses came in the late 80’s and through the 90’s, and just as the times had changed, so did the messages coming from the movies. The princesses of this era are Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan. Contrasting to the classic princesses before them, these ladies portray more strong and independent qualities. They think and act on their own, yet the society around them sees them as odd or strange because of these traits. Lastly, the most recent princesses, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, Anna, Elsa, and Moana, take more control of their stories compared to all of the other princesses. Their storylines are not as focused on a love interest. In fact, Merida, Elsa, and Moana don’t even have a love interest. These
Young girls sit in front of the television watching Disney movies portraying picture perfect girls who are rescued and swept off their feet by a handsome knight in shining armor. While some believe these movies are perfectly harmless, research proves differently. Disney culture has negatively affected society by causing self-esteem issues, establishing gender norms in movies like Sleeping Beauty, and by setting unrealistic expectations, such as those seen in the similar “fairy tale” endings of The Little Mermaid and the movie version of Pride and Prejudice. If one has a bit of background information on this topic, he or she can make up his or her mind on the issue.
Constant traditional themes seem to surface regarding women in various Disney animated films. A current study completed by Towbin et al. (2003) concerning a thematic analysis of gender roles in Disney featured animated films found similar themes. She found that four themes emer...
Princess movies have negative effects on the minds of little girls. Parent’s try their hardest to raise their girls to be strong independent women. The princess movies portray a woman that fulfills his man's needs and puts away education. The movies portray that everything is about beauty and being
The media, including television programming, cartoons, film, the news, as well as literature and magazines, is a very powerful and pervasive medium for expression. It can reach a large number of people and convey ideas, cultural norms, stereotypic roles, power relationships, ethics, and values. Through these messages, the mass media may have a strong influence on individual behavior, views, and values, as well as in shaping national character and culture. Although there is a great potential for the media to have a positive and affirming effect on the public and society at large, there may be important negative consequences when the messages conveyed are harmful, destructive, or violent.
A little girl sits on the floor with her gaze fixed on the television screen in front of her, watching magical images dance before her eyes and catchy songs flow through her ears. Even though she had seen it at least twenty times before, she still loved The Little Mermaid just as much as she did the first time she watched it. As she watched it, she longed to be a beautiful mermaid with a curvy body and wonderful singing voice like Ariel. She longed to be saved by the handsome Prince Eric, and fall in love and live happily ever-after like Ariel did. In today’s society, women strive to achieve equality between the sexes. Despite the tremendous steps that have been taken towards reaching gender equality, mainstream media contradicts these accomplishments with stereotypes of women present in Walt Disney movies. These unrealistic stereotypes may be detrimental to children because they grow up with a distorted view of how men and women interact. Disney animated films assign gender roles to characters, and young children should not be exposed to inequality between genders because its effect on their view of what is right and wrong in society is harmful to their future.
Movies like Disney have affected our minds at our youth though movies. In Paul Castillo’s writing, the negative effects of Disney on children, he talks about how Disney is this family-friendly corporation, yet he argue, “…are we looking deep enough?” (Castillo). This makes you think, if we are just scratching the surface, who knows what would be underneath? Castillo then goes on to say, “It is from these movies that children often get their first impressions of how men and women are supposed to act.” (Castillo). People said that the first impression is important, so the first movie or show will influence that person. Knowing this, you’ll now understand Disney’s power over everyone. Everyone, know what Disney is and or of them, their influence are targeting at a young age. Sleeping Beauty, a movie created by Disney and is mostly watched by children, is “one of the archetypal Disney princesses” and Castillo have shown an interesting point, “Aurora [, the protagonist,] is described as an extraordinarily beautiful woman…however, you will notice that Aurora’s figure is as impossible as a Barbie’s for humans…” (Castillo). What Castillo is trying to say is that children’s who see this is interpreting beautiful as Aurora, a young gorgeous woman, this will only lead them to
England, D. E., Descartes, L., & Collier-meek, M. (2011). Proquest. “Gender role portrayal and the disney princesses”. Sex Roles, 64(7-8), 555-567.
From a very early age, children experience many different stages of life until they become fully-functioning adults with distinguished personalities. Throughout each stage of a child’s life, different socialization agents play a pivotal role in his or her development and transition into adulthood. Throughout this essay, I will discuss what socialization is, as well as implying socialization in terms of the connection between biological development of the individual and individuals learning the norms and customs of society. Furthermore, to accomplish this task, I will describe the four key agents of socialization (family, school, peers, and mass media). I then aim for the audience to comprehend the difference between socialization during other
The mass media has played a key role in shaping people’s lives. The modern society’s use of mass media including TV, radio, newspaper, as well as print media has largely influenced people’s ideas regarding themselves and the society at large. This is evident from their behavior towards themselves and their community as well as their treatment of the environment. While some experts believe that the media is to blame for most of the negative behavioral traits among the active members of society, the majority agree that the media makes people understand and develop a positive sense of association with their society within which they live, making it easy for them to identify and get their role in it.